On the other hand, I'd rather wait some extra time for a book that's better. Parts of Cold Days were sorta disappointing.

 

He has a lot more plot to keep clear in his books now I'd say.

 

Butcher's doing an AMA on reddit right now, I've been curating it for IRC and figured I'd drop a copy in here.

EDIT: Due to Jim's overwhelming need to put smileys in every message, I had to remove them since the forum software has a hard limit on how many can be in one post. A little context is lost on a few answers, so if you want to see the original click the link.



Can we get a break down of the biological relationships between the various Fae Queens we have seen on screen?
Of particular interest - Maeve and Sarissa, were they actually Mab's kids (biological sense)? If so, who was Mab's baby daddy?

Mab and Titania are actual twin sisters.
Maeve and Sarissa were twin sisters, from Mab. Their father was an Austrian composer and musician who died young.

Is The Erlking a mantle in the same way as the other Fae titles? I know he's referred to as Herne at one point in Cold Days, so that got me thinking, considering that he's also iirc the Summer King.

There is no such thing as a Summer King in the Dresden Files faerie cosmology. Mab and Titania need a King like a fish needs a bicycle.
There are a ton of independent rulers of the Wyld, though, much like the Erlking, who is a member of the Winter Court more or less as a sign of courtesy and respect. They will occasionally make alliances (and dalliances) with the great rulers of the Sidhe.

My question is: If you hold true to format, book 20 will be the last one before the Big Ass Trilogy. That's a multiple of 5, so it will involve the Denarians. Does that mean the Denarians will cause the events that end the series?

What, the Denarians appearing on multiples of five? Did you check your math on that one? I'm sure that's not right. That would indicate a pattern and some kind of plan, and everyone knows I'm making this stuff up as I go. I just said so, right up there.

Would the Denarius coins be Tiberius Caesar Denariuses? Being that Tiberius was in power when jesus was crucified and the Denarius coins are said to be the 30 pieces of silver Judas received. I just want to know because I want to make a necklace of a blackened denarius and having the correct authentic coin would be awesome..

Well, Tiberius had only been emperor for fifteen years, give or take a few, when Christ was crucified. Coins of that period stayed in circulation for a pretty hefty time period, and would travel out from Rome in ripples when new coins were minted. Palestine was a pretty good distance from the heart of the Empire. They were probably a mix of newer Tiberian and older Augustan coins, unless you hypothesize some kind of Romanocentric conspiracy for killing off Jesus, that might well be funded with all newer coins.

I had a question about favors and mantles. If someone owes a being with a mantle a favor (say someone owed Lloyd a favor), and that mantle passes to someone before the favor was called in (to, say, a certain Chicago Wizard), does the person who receives the mantle get the favor?
Also, if a unique denizen of Faerie akin to Cat Sith were to die, does it have a mantle that passes on? Would the next-eldest malk be able to get more powerful?
On a different note, what would happen if one person made contact with more than one Denarian coin with their skin - does the presence of one shadow/Fallen (in the case of a full Denarian) keep the other out, or does that poor soul now have TWO shadows in his head? Can one person wield two coins as a full Denarian (i.e. draw on both angels' powers), or can there only be one?

Depends of the nature of the mantle. Not all of them are all about obligation, the way the Faerie mantles are. But as far as Faerie mantles go, yes. If you owed Maeve a favor when Maeve was the Winter Lady, you don't get out of your debt just because there's a new Winter Lady in town. Molly is the one who is going to collect now.
The mantle of Eldest is an important one in Faerie, and yes, it would pass on should its bearer perish.

Was Mab active in WW2 Russia? Did Odin give the FBI the hexenwulf belts?

1) She was mostly an observer. Taking notes, as it were.
2) Oh, absolutely not.

Lastly, can you give us just a minor spoiler about what the 16th novel will be about? Just something to look forward to after reading the 15th.

Book 16 will be titled PEACE TALKS, and will probably be one of the more supernaturally violent books to date.

Are the new short stories (such as Bombshells) going to be released in an anthology like Side Jobs?

They will, as soon as I have enough stories for a second anthology. I was going to call it MORE JOBS but Loweeel (http://www.reddit.com/user/Loweeel) suggested BRIEF CASES as a title, and that's too good to not use.

1)The Fae cannot lie, but they can be mistaken. Can they lie to themselves?
2)Would you say that in general, Power and Purpose are linked? That creatures that are outrageously powerful are so because they attach themselves to a specific purpose, like a train that is incredibly powerful, but only on train tracks, vs a car that can go on any roads? (The metaphor being expandable to derailing being entirely intentional.)
3)What would happen to someone who spends a year or more in the nevernever, eating nevernever food, breathing nevernever air, then returns to the real world? Do they get sick/die as all the ectoplasmic stuff in their bodies turns to goo, or does it metaphysically become one with them?
4)How much of a pause would the White Council take if Harry were to start flagrantly breaking the laws and saying "Come at me bro" while Winter Knight? Would his connection to Mab provide much protection?
5)Is Joe the janitor at the train station in Small Favor actually just a janitor, or is he, like Uriel, an angel in disguise? Related, is Sandra Marling anything other than what she appears?
6)Do you prefer to sit down and crunch the numbers on feats of strength and power output for your supernatural creatures, or do you prefer to just look at the scale of the effect and figure out what seems right for the story and tier of entity?

1) Not knowingly. But then, which of us do.
2) By and large, yes.
3) They get sick and die. That's why you shouldn't eat Faerie Food. After, what is it, seven years or so, you've completely replaced the cells in your body with new cells. If they all come from faerie food, you just glorp to the floor. I think there might be some brain left.
4) They wouldn't pause long at /all/ in that case. And Mab would look at him and say "you started this: finish it."
5) No comment.
6) Both.

Is Mac more than a human? I think he's not, but there's a growing faction that believes he's either Merlin or some sort of Gray Angel

Mac has never once done anything beyond the capability of a plain old vanilla human being.

Speaking of the jabberwock I noticed that the swords the wardens use are referenced as "snicker-snack" or something similar when used. Does that mean that as referenced in the poem with his father at the campfire that Harry will eventually obtain a warden sword?

Since Warden Luccio was the one who crafted all the Warden swords, and she made the last of them before her talents were badly handicapped by the events of Dead Beat, no, it doesn't look like Harry is going to get a Warden's blade. Nor will any of the Wardens who came in after Luccio's body swap.

1) What ever happened to Siriothrax's hoard? Did any of the magical powerups in the series we've seen so far originate there?
2) Given that it takes a turkey 30-50 seconds to fall from an airplane, it is very hard to hit a moving target just at the right time. Do Entropy Curses reach back in time to achive the desired outcome, or was the turkey being guided by the curse on the way down?
3) We were told in Dead Beat that Kemmler was finally killed in 1961. Looking online, I found that the Tsar Bomb (largest man-made explosion ever) was detonated on Halloween eve, 1961. Is this a coincidence, a coverup by the various authorities of the showdown that took place, or the direct result of Kemmler's Death Curse?
4) How high up do magic circles go? Are they spheres or cylinder shaped? Was Gene Roddenberry on to something?
5) The black tentacles that the Blackstaff uses to cure Ebenezer from breaking the Laws of Magic seem very simlar to the ones described by the mordite. Is there a connection between Outsiders and the corruption you get from Black Magic?


1) Heh, it's still right where it was. NO ONE wants to pick up anything from a Dragon's hoard. Talk about Death Curses...
2) The latter.
3) You read too much.
4) By and large they are spheres, but they'll adjust to the creator. They don't adhere to specific geometry because they're also created by will and intent.
5) There's no proof of that. You don't know.

With Mouse and Maggie being guests at the Carpenter house, I have a question relating to Mouse's "cheating" for a power source.

1) How did Mouse use Dresden as a mana battery? Is it a question of ambient siphoning, i.e. being around a large enough power source 'gives off' a certain amount of atmospheric grounding that Mouse absorbs, for lack of a better term?
2) Can he do the same for the faith-based energy of Michael, his family, or those tasked with the guarding of it?

1) He didn't. Lea had incorrect assumptions about the source of Mouse's power.
2) No, he can't. It isn't what he does.

1) Did Maggie LeFay Intentionally and for a purpose have a child, Thomas, with Lord Raith?
2) Does Thomas know anything about Harry's Starborn Status?
3) Did Maggie LeFay impart any important information to Thomas during the Soul Gaze?
4) Does Thomas know more about Justine's background than we do?
5) Why did Thomas agree to do Lara that favor in Bombshells?
6) Was Lea the one who ratted out Thomas and got him into trouble in Bombshells?
7) Does Thomas still wear his amulet/necklace?
8) What happened to the Beauty Salon?
9) Did Maggie LeFay leave anything else for Thomas other than the amulet/necklace?
10) How did you come up with the idea for Thomas?

1) No. She was having lots of awesome vampire sex and it sort of happened.
2) No.
3) Basically Thomas got the same stuff Harry did, along with "Look out for your little brother, Thomas."
4) Yes.
5) Because it's easier to do Lara the occasional favor than it is to suffer her displeasure.
6) No, that was Thomas being a little careless, and the svartalves being very, very good.
7) Not always but mostly.
8) Without Toe-mass there to addict the customers, it folded after a little while.
9) No.
10) Oh, uh. I don't know? I needed him, mostly.

I seem to remember that the Outer Gates are currently being guarded by Winter, but it was insinuated that they are just its current defenders. Does that mean that there were guardians before them or that they are the last of those guardians?

Both.

No questions. Please keep doing what you're doing, and if it's not too much trouble, make Karrin take up the Sword. Thank you.

Be careful what you wish for.

When he Swords light up, is it faith magic that is empowering it, or is it soulfire? Some comments made about the effects it has on its enemies and how similar Harry's blasting rod lit up with the same light when he was casting soulfire-laced fire bolts made me make a connection.

They're related, but they aren't the same.

1) is there any way a wizard could absorb the magic of another wizard to become more powerful?
2) In Backup,you mention The Stygian Sisterhood.Who slice out the parts of their human personalities they don’t want, and replace them with pieces torn from minds of inhuman beings.I Found that concept fascinating.How exactly the cutting of and replacing process works?
3) Can a Half-Vampire use the mental powers somes of the Red Court have?And can a wizard become a Half-Vampire and still be able to use magic?
4) How does the love spell in "Love Hurts" works exactly?
5) Can you tell us about the feeding method of the jade court?
6) How does a Faerie Gaing power?How would a weak goblin become like the Erlking?or a weak gruff become like the eldest gruff?
7) What are Arthur Langtry,Ancient Mai and gregori cristos's greateast magical abilities?

1) Yes. And it is /horrible/.
2) Psychic surgery, much like when Molly removed Harry's memory about his upcoming visitor.
3) No, the half-vamps just get partial access to the physical stuff. The other stuff comes later. They can definitely still use their talents, if they had any, or develop them if they only had latent potential.
4) Much the same way love does. How does that work, exactly?
5) No.
6) Time, effort, and will. Keep an eye on Toot-toot.
7) Langtry's greatest ability is the mental communication and coordination of lots of different people all at once, without going crazy himself. He's a badass at most forms of magic, but that's really his /gift/. Ancient Mai is the greatest enchanter and artifomancer on the Council--she makes the coolest magical toys. And Cristos... well, he did a stint as a Warden, and gave a good accounting of himself in the War with the Red Court, but mostly he's good at networking.

1) In Fool Moon, when Bob is listing things the Harry can use to hide from the loupe garou, he doesn't mention veils. Was that just because he knows Harry sucked at them, or because they could see through them? Would someone like Molly be able to?
2) Did Harry ever teach Murphy how to make a circle? It took like 30 seconds to explain it to Butters.
3) Does Harry know Bob's Name? Would knowing it give him anymore hold over it then possessing the skull?
4) If you could go back in time and remove or change 1 thing from the Dresden's world, what would be? A character, a way magic works, etc.
5) Are there any positions in the White Council you can get by collecting bottle caps?
6) Is Mouse a good boy? Who's a good boy? Are you the good boy?
7) Forgot this one: Matter from the Nevernever dissolves into ectoplasm in the real world, but the faeries leave a corpse when they die. Explanation?

1) The loup garou would have seen right through a veil. Plus Harry really sucked at them, and I was still developing how the magic was going to work.
2) He's explained it before but Murphy is not into it. She's sticking with what she knows.
3) Well, he GAVE Bob a name. And yes, it does give him more hold over him than he would have otherwise, though not more than actually holding the skull would.
4) I'd be an idiot to tinker with anything at this point. It's working.
5) Probably. High Illuminated Master of Metal Disks That Can Cut You Slightly, maybe.
6) Mouse is!
7) Faeries are a unique case in the Nevernever, as the beings who basically straddle the worlds. Plus there are other reasons which are none of your beeswax just yet.

---------- Post automerged at 15:02 ---------- Previous post was at 13:43 ----------

There are some interesting tidbits in here.

Mozart could be Maeve's father. It seems there's some retconning in regards to the Fae Kings. I posted since in an earlier interview Butcher said the Erlking is associated with Summer, not Winter.

Butcher avoided the question about multiple coins and multiple shadows, that could be relevant.

Mac not doing anything that a vanilla human can do is misleading. Vanilla humans exterminated the Elders of the Black Court(who could take Mab on). Humans also have free will, souls, love, etc.

The networking bit about Cristos was amusing, given who his friends are.

 

I like that the most supernaturally violent book of the series is going to be called Peace Talks. I also like the mention that since Harry gave Bob a name he still had power over him. This is probably the reason why he was able to get him to switch sides at the end of Dead Beat.

The dragon's hoard kinda makes me want to start up another DFRPG. I could get a lot of story out of an Item of Power from Siriothrax's hoard.

 

I cannot express how much that idea arouses me, Jon.

 

I can totally see a Dresden Telltale game.

 

Thanks to Sereth/Second Aristh.

Booktalk Nation Interview WoJ Transcript 5-15-14

Hello everyone, here's a transcript from yesterday's interview. You can watch the video here. Questions start coming in around 23 minutes into the video.
Are we going to ever see any stories from Morgan’s point of view? Obviously this will be set in the past, but it would be interesting.
It would be interesting. Huh. Yeah maybe. I hadn’t even considered that before. It might make for an interesting story. Especially in retrospect.

Are Georgia and the baby okay? We last saw her in Aftermath, 8 ½ month pregnant and not well off. Then we just see Will by himself and angry.
Yeah they’re fine. Will’s just kinda angry generally speaking. It’s mostly because he’s not sleeping very much. He’s got a baby werewolf to deal with. That’s gotta be tough on him. Just regular parenting is hard enough.

How has Mouse been? Will you incorporate him into further adventures or has his character been placed on the shelf?
Mouse has been very busy taking care of Maggie. You’ll get to see a bit more of that in the upcoming book. … Mouse has been actually doing his own children series in the back of my head with Maggie.

Will we see Faith again, and if so did she learn to be a wizard?
You will indeed see her. Faith will be the client that sets off the big apocalyptic trilogy. She was the first Dresden client in the very first Dresden short story that I wrote, so I want to use her again to kick off the big ending.

Does Harry have an incorrect understanding of the Dark Hollow and other parts of the world?
Oh god yes. I won’t say Harry is clueless, but his understanding of lots of things including the way that magic works is incomplete in many ways. If only because he hasn’t been trusted by a lot of the wizarding community by a lot of the people who could have taught him better. And a lot of the people who do know better aren’t correcting him because they think it’s important to learn these things on your own. Harry’s going to be stumbling across things where he goes “Oh, well I didn’t understand this exactly right.” Like for example the literal Outer Gates. That was something he did not know actually existed. He thought that was a metaphor for a long time.

How did Ebenezar’s instant death spell in Changes work?
That had to do with Ebenezar’s stick. That was all to do with the Blackstaff.
Any more to elaborate?
Well, there are folks who have speculated on where the Blackstaff came from, and that should explain it for those who piece it together.

Are Mother Summer and Mother Winter two of three Fates? If so what is the third?
No, they’re… read Skin Game.

Fix looks like he had a rather impressive Summer Knight’s sword. Was that part of the standard kit or something he had managed to get on his own?
That was a blade that Titania had made for him.
Is there even a Sword of Winter, and if Harry doesn’t get it, who has it?
No, not as such. The Knight himself is considered more important. Summer likes to externalize things about violence because they’re not quite as attuned to that sort of savagery. In Winter it’s much more important for you to be the weapon than it is for you to have the weapon. Harry is expected to be the sword.

Do other planets except Earth have a Never Never, and if yes, what causes them to have a Never Never?
I’ve got enough to deal with with just the one planet, much less other planets!! There’s one planet, and they’re multiple realities of the one planet running around side by side into infinity and now you want more planets too?! Aaahhhh
Let me think about that one, and I’ll get back to you.

How many people died because of the events of Dead Beat?
There were several dozen casualties in Dead Beat, and the wardens who acted there managed to prevent more than that. The town got kinda crazy, but in Dresden’s Chicago people are very very good at putting their heads down when things get completely weird and then pretending nothing happened afterward.

Will there ever be a story with baby Drac or his daddy?
There might be. The Impaler is one of those people I’m saving for later.

Will we see the Jade Court?
Probably not. You might see one of their agents. You’ll probably never see them because they’re very isolationist, and they like to stay isolated.

Why doesn’t Harry get a sword? Everyone else gets a sword. I thought for sure he was going to get one.
What’s he gonna do with a sword? He’ll cut himself. Honestly, if he had a sword he’d fall on it, you know he would. Somebody would take it away from him and hit him with it. That’s the kind of thing that happens.

In the next short story compilation will we be seeing more of Sigrun Gard?
I think she appears in one… maybe. The only one that actually featured her was Hereot (sp?) She actually appears in Even Hand. It’s the story from Marcone’s point of view.

What does Murphy do for a living now that she’s not a paid officer?
She’s got her half retirement, and she gets a small stipend from the Brighter Future Society. She’s got some money she had put by as well. Basically Murphy is scraping.

When will we learn about the original Merlin?
It’s gonna be a few more books.
How many more? Is it gonna be a lot more?
I don’t know. A few more. I’ve got another five or six books until we get to the end of the case books, and I think the original Merlin stuff will start coming out towards the very end.

You’ve said before that you’d like to see an animated series made from these books. Do you have anything to comment on that?
That would be awesome.
Any ideas on who you would want the voices to be?
If it’s gonna be an animated series, we’ve got to get Marsters to do Dresden. If he could be talked into such a thing.

Will Harry drive around in that hearse for the rest of the series?
Haha no. He’s got the Munstermobile for now, but no.

Will Maggie play a big part in later books?
Wait and see.

Will we see Lash again?
I’m not gonna tell you!! (sing-song; insert Jim’s happy dance)

How did Michael know about Elaine in Grave Peril?
At that point Michael and Harry had had enough bonding time for Harry to share some things with Michael that he hadn’t shared with anybody else. He’d actually known Michael for about a year by the time Grave Peril got started.

Will there be a short story from Kincaid’s perspective?
Probably not, although if I ever get around to writing the short story about Hawaii then there will be one where he’s at least in it, but it will be from Murphy’s point of view.

How did Harry and Michael Carpenter originally meet?
It was on a case that Harry was working that he crossed trails with Michael. I don’t want to say much more than that in case I want to go back and write it at some point, but it’s in my notes back there somewhere. They wound up fighting the same bad guy.

Who is your favorite character that has only appeared in the Dresden books?
I really like one of the guys from Skin Game. He’s a character named Goodman Gray from Skin Game. I really liked him. He was fun to write. Bob the Skull is right up there. I have all kinds of fun writing Vadderung. Unfortunately it’s all from Harry’s point of view, so I don’t get to write Vadderung’s perspective on everything. He’s incredibly funny in my head, but I don’t always get to put it into the story.
As a follow up, do you base these characters off of people in real life that you know?
Oh god no. No, I wouldn’t do that to anybody that I knew. The one character I did do that with was Shiro, and Shiro is a compilation of a couple of martial arts teachers I had as a teenager.

 

A bit narcissistic, don't you think, LittleChicago, liking your own stuff.

 

That ain't funny and never was.

 

In the immortal words of George Carlin:

"Fuck you, I think it's hilarious."

 

Here's 50 cents kid, now go buy yourself a sense of humor.

 

Sorry, but things like that don't amuse me. I don't understand how anyone can think "lol LittleChicago is Jim Butcher hahaha" is funny.

 

Because LittleChicago is a skilled writer who consistently nails the characterisation of numerous Dresden Files characters in the 'fanfiction' he writes.

Still, I'm sorry our sense of humour here at DLP doesn't align with your own. We'll do our best to bring the community interests more in line with what you deem appropriate.

Oh, wait...

 

Sigh. I stated my opinion as if it were a fact, and that was rather arrogant of me, yes. I admit my failure in that regard. But I find DLP thoroughly amusing, barring a few running gags I never cared for (mknote is unpopular! LittleChicago is Jim Butcher!).

 

Ekul literally every group of people has in-jokes, since you're new to this one there are of course going to be jokes you dont get or think are funny. Please dont shit on our in jokes even if you dont like them.

Also Little Chicago is Jim Butcher is the best joke ever how could you not think thats funny after reading his fics?

 

Well, I apologise for being an opinionated cunt. It's not a justification, but I've had a bad morning, what with the heat, the hay fever, hunger, menstruation. You know, all that good stuff.

 

We have another Schro!?